Friday 26 January 2018

FO: Tegna by Caitlin Hunter

Let's talk about lessons, and how you are supposed to learn them the hard way.


When you set out to knit a sweater there are a couple of things you are supposed to do.

Knit a swatch.

Wash and block your swatch.

Measure your Gauge.

Measure yourself.

Do some math.

Pick your size and estimate how much yarn you will need.

Cast on, Knit, and enjoy your beautifully fitting sweater.


You are not supposed to do it this way.

Identify two skeins of yarn in your deep stash (oblivious to the fact that one of them is clearly not a full skein).

Scroll through Ravelry patterns database, selecting fingering weight, and sweaters, and 800 yards.

Pick a pattern (the Tegna, by Caitlin Hunter).

Note that the second size uses 800 yards.

Decide that is the size that you are.

For really no reason at all (the pattern calls for 3.25 mm) decide you will knit yours on 3.5 mm needles.

Cast on.

Finish your first skein and think to yourself there is no way that was a full skein.

Order an emergency back up skein online.

Knit the full body, join the shoulder seams and try it on (with neck stitches held on needles).

Have a hoooooly crap moment, this thing fits you like its cropped to your boobs. Not a pretty look on anyone let alone someone with twin mommy weight around her middle.

Knit the neck line (because you're waiting for your back up yarn) and pray to the superwash gods that this puppy with grow.

Hang it on a hanger and give it a good steaming which you pull hard.

Try it on a bunch more times.

Knit the sleeves.


Soak and wet block it, giving it a solid stretching for length and width.

Go to bed and dream about sweater elves coming in the night to magically grow your sweater.


Be pleasantly surprised with the results, even tho it fits nothing like it was designed to. Mine has 0 to negative ease, pattern calls for 5 to 10 inches of positive.

You can guess which path I followed to get to this sweater, and right up until I wore it yesterday and Kevin said it looked good I was seriously thinking I might have to cut my losses and gift it away. But given my choices, that is not what I deserved.

It should have been fit for a 10 year old.


But lesson learned (for now), and I've already swatched for the next one.

Project Page
Yarn is Cascade Heritage Solids in Charcoal, three different dye lots, can't tell the difference tho.

Wednesday 24 January 2018

Natural Dyeing Yarn with Avocado Skins and Pits

We eat a lot of avocados. In salads, on toast, as guacamole, or just cut up and given to the boys as a snack. So it should not be a surprise that the second natural dyeing project I should try would be avocado skins and pits. Apparently if you keep them separate they will give slightly different colours, but I pooled them together for this set of four naturally dyed skeins.



I've been collecting them in a bag in my freezer for the past month, and when I hit 15 (ok really I just wanted to give it a go already and 15 is the number I had) I decided it was time.

I used 15 avocado skins and pits to dye 400g of yarn. After scooping out the tasty parts I scraped the skins clean with the spoon and rinsed everything in tap water. Some skins (about 4) were fresh that day, the others had been frozen for up to 1 month.

To extract the dye: I put the skins in about 3.5 litres of water. The pits I chopped up in my food processor to icrease the surface area in hopes more dye would be extracted. I added this to my pot and brought the whole thing just to a boil, then reduced heat to a simmer for 1 hour, stirring ocasionally. Then I let the pot rest and cool for 24 hours. I strained out the liquid and had 3 litres of dye solution. Note to self, invest in a fine mesh strainer for dyeing.

Yarn: 4 skeins of 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon sock weight yarn, bought online here.



Skein 1 and 2.

I soaked my yarn in water overnight. I poured half of my dye solution into my pot (I use a large enameled one bought on amazon, the porceline enamel surface is non reactive and this pot was cheeper than similar size stainless steel ones). And added an extra 3 litres of water. In to the pot went skeins of presoaked but not otherwise treated yarn. I brout the temperature up to just under a boil, reduced heat and simmered for 1 hour.



Skein 1: No mordant.

You'll see the without any help at all, avocado dyes wool to a lovely pale blush.Apparently if you keep skins and pits separate they'll give slightly different shades, and again, you can intensify colours by creating a more concentrated dye stock (ie use way more avocados), but this pale colour is very pretty in of itself, and the yarn was beautifully soft. No colour washed away with rinsing.




Skein 2: Iron after bath.

After removing skein 1 from the pot I pulled skein 2 out and hung it above the pot (did not rinse, just got it out of the water). My dye bath was still hot, I added in 1/4 tsp of ferrous sulfate powder (Iron mordant purchased from Dharma Trading Co.) and stirred it into solution. Then I lowered my skein quickly back into the pot. Bam! The colour change was mediate, with the skein darkening to a silvery purple. The trick with an iron bath is that it is non-reversible and the colour progresses with time. I should have started with even less than 1 tsp, but alas, that's why this is a dye experiment. But after two minutes the skein had deepened to a great silvery purple and I quickly pulled it out and rinsed it off., not wanting it to darken too far.

There still seemed to be quite a bit of dye in my pot, so I ran downstairs, grabbed another skein of 100% merino (100g DK weight) and threw it into the pot as is (dry!). You can see that skein (the bottom one) is lighter in colour than the first skein in that pot, showing that the dye pot is exhausting. If I had unlimited time and yarn, I would have dyed a full gradient until the pot fully exhausted (one day...).



I cleaned my pot (scrub really well, the tiniest leftover iron residue can affect your colours) and got ready for Alum.

Skeins 3 and 4

These skeins needed pre-mordanting with alum. Into my pot went 4 litres of water and 2 tsp of aluminum sulfate (Alum, Jacquard brand purchased on Amazon). I added my two skeins, which had previously soaked for 1 hour in water in my sink, and heated the pot to just under a boil, then reduced heat and simmered for 1 hour. I let the pot cool and sit overnight before removing the yarn (but not rinsing it).



Skein 3: Alum premordanted

I added the second half of my dye solution to my pot, along with an extra 3 litres of water. Into the pot went my two premordanted with alum skeins of yarn. I brought the whole thing up to just below a boil, reduced the heat and let simmer for 1 hour (I know same old same old). Then I pulled out one skein, the colour in this premordanted skein was nearly identical to skein 1 above. The major difference however was that the alum treatment left the yarn feeling crunchy. This is why it is recommended by many natural dyers that you include some cream of tartar (tartaric acid) to your pot when mordanting with alum, as the acidic pH helps to keep the wool nice and soft. Interesting that this didn't happen in my previous onion skin dying experiments. I may do an acid treatment on this skein and see if if helps to soften it up, since the texture, while not totally horrible, isn't as desirable as the softness of this skein originally.



Skein 4: Alum premordanted and Iron afterbath.

Just like before, I pulled my fourth skein out of the still hot pot and hung it out of the way. I added 1/4 tsp of iron to the pot. Stirred it up and then lowered my skein back into it all at once. Again the colour began to change imediately and although not nearly as dark despite using the same amount of iron (perhaps an effect of the alum treatment). This time I let it simmer for about 10 minutes before pulling the skein. Its concrete grey, not as deep as skein 2 above and without the purple cast.

So there they are, four beautiful skeins, four truly distinct colours, from one batch of avocado dye.



Tuesday 23 January 2018

Natural Dyeing with Onion Skin

As part of my homework for my Master Spinner Level 1 (through Olds College), I have to comeplete a dyer's notebook featurig 10 natural dyeing projects. All of these dye projects should feature yarns with or without alum and iron as mordants. There are lots of increadible book resourses (I picked up a copy of Modern Natural Dyeing) and website (I've been freaquenting All Natural Dyeing and Wild Colours to name a few). There is also an extremely helpful group on Ravelry (when is there not?) called Plants to Dye For, that is very active and whose members have tried every plant just about.

So Onion Skins.


I've been collecting them in a bag in my kitchen for the past two months, but after reading online that it was recommended to use a 1 to 1 dyestuffs to fibre ratio, and knowing I wanted to dye 400 grams of yarn, I got tired of doing it the slow way. So next time I did groceries I dug around the onion bin for loose skins ans filled up a bag, which they let me take home for free (after explaining to the confused cash register lady that I was going to dye some yarn with them).

I used 100g of yellow onion skins (with one red onion skin thrown it, because apparently we had one) to dye 400g of yarn.

To extract the dye: I put the onion skins in about 3.5 litres of water and brought them just to a boil, then reduced heat to a simmer for 1 hour. Then I let the whole hot stinking (it really did stink) pot rest and cool for 24 hours. I strained out the skins and had 3 litres of dye solution.

Yarn: 4 skeins of 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon sock weight yarn, bought online here.



Skein 1 and 2.

I soaked my yarn in water overnight. I poured half of my dye solution into my pot (I use a large enameled one bought on amazon, the porceline enamel surface is non reactive and this pot was cheeper than similar size stainless steel ones). And added an extra 3 litres of water. In to the pot went skeins of presoaked but not otherwise treated yarn. I brout the temperature up to just under a boil, reduced heat and simmered for 1 hour.



Skein 1: No mordant.

You'll see the without any help at all, onion skins dye wool to a lovely pale yellow with a pink cast to it. I've seen people get deaper orangey yellows with more concentrated onion skins, but at this 25% concentration (100g skins /400g yarn) the colour is definately more muted. No colour washed away with rinsing.




Skein 2: Iron after bath.

After removing skein 1 from the pot I pulled skein 2 out and hung it above the pot (did not rinse, just got it out of the water). My dyebath was still hot, I added in 1/2 tsp of ferrous sulfate powder (Iron mordant purchased from Dharma Trading Co.) and stirred it into solution. Then I lowered my skein quickly back into the pot. Bam! The colour change was immediate, with the skein darkening to a brown. The trick with an iron bath is that it is non-reversible and the colour progresses with time. I should have started with even less than 1 tsp, but alas, that's why this is a dye experiment. But after one 1 minute the skein had deepened to a lovely chocolate brown and I quickly pulled it out and rinsed it off.

There was probably enough dye materials in my pot that I could have thrown in another skein at this point, but it was late, and I didn't have any on hand to try it out. I cleaned my pot (scrub really well, the tiniest leftover iron residue can affect your colours) and got ready for Alum.

Skeins 3 and 4

These skeins needed pre-mordanting with alum. Into my pot went 4 litres of water and 2 tsp of aluminum sulfate (Alum, Jacquard brand purchased on Amazon). I added my two skeins, which had previously soaked for 1 hour in water in my sink, and heated the pot to just under a boil, then reduced heat and simmered for 1 hour. I let the pot cool and sit overnight before removing the yarn (but not rinsing it).



Skein 3: Alum premordanted

I added the second half of my dye solution to my pot, along with an extra 3 litres of water. Into the pot went my two premordanted with alum skeins of yarn. I brought the whole thing up to just below a boil, reduced the heat and let simmer for 1 hour (I know same old same old). Then I pulled out my beautiful golden yellow skein and rinsed it in the sink (no colour washed away in rinsing).



Skein 4: Alum premordanted and Iron afterbath.

Just like before, I pulled my fourth skein out of the still hot pot and hung it out of the way. This time (knowing how dark my previous iron skein turned out) I only added 1/4 tsp of iron to the pot. Stirred it up and then lowered my skein back into it all at once. Again the colour began to change immediately and although not nearly as dark. This time I let it simmer for about 5 minutes before pulling the skein. Its a yellowy brown with a slight green cast.

So there they are, four beautiful skeins, four truly distinct colours, from one batch of onion skin dye.


Sunday 21 January 2018

WIP list

I have been keeping an ongoing list of my current WIPs in my knitting journal. With the vauge goal of 1) keeping them under one page's worth and 2) finishing 2018 with none of them (my word for 2018 is follow through, two words I know but its the point that counts).



Through Renne Anne (Confessions of a Yarn Addict) I found my way over to a Ravelry Group called A Year of Projects, and although it is not July 1, I figure I'd hop in now anyways, starting my year with the Calendar year.

So if you look up in the Header Bar/Tabs Bar, you'll see a new page for WIPs. All current ones. As in these are the one's I haven't forgotten about and are not hidden in a box in the basement (yep when we moved to Medicine Hat in June 2016, I packed up a box of languishing WIPs, so far only one thing has been rescued from it, although still not finished).

There are currently 19.... and I might be swatching for number 20 right now. Which is (with Yarn as my witness) where I'm going to cap that list.

Because even tho I swore I wouldn't cast on something new until I cast one more off. I caked up some yarn Friday night and cast one on.


Happy Knitting!

Wednesday 17 January 2018

2017 Recap

Hello again. And welcome to 2018, just shy of 18 days in. January has been the strangest blend of busy and slow so far. That feeling the can only come in winter, when you are cooped up indoors most of the time, and are spending your days either hanging out with your kids or writing in your office.

I've pretty much been doing only those two things so far this year. And playing with yarn, always playing with yarn. And it has kept me both busy and bored.

Busy, because over the last month I've put most (so close only a few straggling figures) of my data into my thesis, as well as writing over 100 pages of it. I've played blocks, and books, and kitchen and chase and tickle fights and cars..... with Alex and Dom. We've planned out the first half of our year, with Kevin working Locums that will shuffle our family all over Alberta (again). Oh and I dyed a big old pile of yarn.

Bored, because I've watched more of the Wiggles than anyone should. Same goes for Little Baby Bum and Word Party. I have dredged through my thesis writing (so hard to put your brain in the game after so much time off to focus on babies). And I spent a literal week without leaving the house (Kev was out of town for work and where am I taking two toddlers by myself in -30 weather?).

Anyways, all of that and more has kept me away from writing a blog post, but today I feel in the mood. So let's do it, and recap some of my yarny creations in 2018.


This year, for the first time ever, I kept an Excel spreadsheet and tracked my projects and yarn consumption. The idea was inspired by Mina Phillips (the Knitting Expat), and originally the goal was to use up my stash, at twice the rate I added to it.


Oh I'm sorry, I just fell off my chair laughing. Yeah that plan fell to pieces by March, and by June I had just stopped bothering to track incoming yarn... it was just too shameful.

Anyways here's the stats.

I finished 60 projects. Which included:

14 hats
2 cowls
6 shawls
16 pairs of socks
5 pairs of mits
4 adult sweaters
6 child's sweaters
4 stuffies
and 1 full size blanket.

My total grams of yarn used for the year was 8302 and that was 22 308 yards.

4 projects were chunky or heavier, 26 were worsted, 7 DK and 22 fingering weight (Clearly sport and lace weight are lacking in my stash).



I also dyed a fair bit of yarn (you can find it in my Etsy Shop).


Sewed a fair bit (project bags also for sale on Etsy).


And got back to spinning my own yarns.

Overall it was a great year for the Yarn Lab, and once I get this pesky thesis out of the way, I've got even bigger plans for 2018.